LIVING HISTORY: Trump’s Power Success Obama-Biden’s Wages Of Weakness

How fortunate for peace and stability to have an American president who knows how to use American power to achieve positive change in supposedly intractable international problems.

Way way down the essay:

On the U.S. domestic front, a jealous, condescending former president, Barack Obama, won’t give Trump credit for his momentous, decadal diplomatic achievement. Understand Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing. Barack isn’t stupid. He knows his prize was a sham — and Trump’s success turns his sham into a historical wound.

Just the facts.

GERMANY REARMS, ALBEIT SLOWLY AND BELATEDLY: Germany Revives Conscription to Strengthen Military As the update notes, in a dry tone, “Since 1991, Germany has lagged in meeting NATO spending and modernization requirements.” No kidding. It also says “a draft will be politically unpopular among young Germans.”

From the StrategyPage FORCES update:

The government has made it clear that providing Ukraine with security guarantees requires increasing military manpower. The conscription bill, approved by the German government in mid-August, would draft 110,000 men and assign them to Bundeswehr reserve units. The bill must still be approved by the German parliament.

This is a start but awfully late.

More:

Germany ended compulsory military conscription in 2011—though “suspended” is how the government refers to the 2011 decision. Defense officials have concluded that voluntary recruitment will not meet Germany’s current defense requirements and definitely doesn’t meet NATO and EU defense requirements.

This update isn’t long but is data-rich. Just remember in 2017 President Trump tried to kickstart European NATO rearmament and modernization.

80 YEARS AGO JAPAN SURRENDERS: However, WW2 Not Quite Over For Japan. Old territorial disputes still scar the peace, I wrote this column a week ago. But today is the anniversary of the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay.

RETURN OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT? Trump mulls Department of War Is he serious, or trolling geriatric Sixties peaceniks, or both?

A VERY BIG QUESTION WITH IMMEDIATE AND LONG TERM CONSEQUENCES: Can a NATO ‘Article 5-Like’ Promise Protect Ukraine From Putin?

Back in the not-so-long ago Cold War thermonuclear brink days:

The NATO Treaty’s Article 5 stated the political consequences of waging war in Europe. The glib call it The Three Musketeers Clause — one for all and all for one. The musketeers are fiction. Article 5 made a serious commitment in a very real nuclear-armed world.

NATO members agreed “that an armed attack against one or more of them … shall be considered an attack against them all.” Each member would then take “action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain” NATO security. The enemy had to attack a member’s territory or member “forces, vessels or aircraft” operating “in or over” NATO territory.

Actions backed the words. U.S., Britain and France stationed soldiers in West Germany, on the Soviet Union’s axis of attack. In the mid-1970s, I served in a U.S. Army armored unit deployed in the primary invasion route from East Germany to the Rhine River. We called ourselves human trip wires.

The Kremlin understood an attack on West Germany (or Norway, etc.) triggered a theater-wide war with the whole of NATO –from Turkey to Norway to the North Pole– and a global war with NATO strategic powers (U.S. primarily but also France and Great Britain).

August 2025. Ukraine is a hot war involving nuclear-armed Russia led by megalomaniac Putin. Trump seeks to end the war with his own blend of coercive diplomacy, hard talk, soft talk, big sticks, a few calculated carrots:

The U.S., Ukraine and the key European nations indicate that if a peace deal emerges, Ukraine will receive what is called “Article 5-like” security guarantees.

What is that? Is it Article 5-Lite? The better question is what constitutes a violation of Ukraine’s Article 5-like guarantee?

To really give peace a chance — and convince Putin Russian violations will be swiftly and harshly penalized — that question requires detailed answers backed by evident military preparations.

Article 5-Like is a calculated carrot. Perhaps by the end of October we will know what it means in real world terms –maybe.

WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED? Cuba Mercenaries With Russian Forces In Ukraine

From an opinion piece in The Washington Times:

Havana traditionally supplied the fighting forces by which the Soviet Union’s ideological and military ambitions could be implemented across the developing world. Tens of thousands of Cuban troops, military advisers and doctors supported communist guerrillas and would-be despots in countries such as Ethiopia, Yemen, Angola and Grenada.

Now, more than three decades since the collapse of the USSR, a new generation of Cuban fighters is engaged in a Russian war, not under the banner of Marxist-Leninist fraternity but as contract soldiers.

With the number of Russian troops killed or wounded reaching potentially more than 800,000, Russia is bleeding more manpower than at any other time since the Second World War. To avoid the domestic political risks of further mobilizing Russians, President Vladimir Putin has turned to foreign mercenaries to plug this manpower gap.

More:

According to Dr. Orlando Gutierrez Boronat of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, 6,000 to 7,000 Cubans today are serving on the front lines in some of the most brutal battles of the war, with 10% of Cuban recruits dying in the first year of combat and 30% wounded. Ukrainian intelligence estimates that 20,000 Cubans have joined the Russian army since 2022.

North Korea in Ukraine, now Cuba. Cold War Russian Communist Empire comrades return as mercs. But they always were. In exchange for cheap Russian oil Castro spilled Cuban blood in Soviet peripheral wars waged in Africa and Latin America. As for the Russian 800,000 total casualties figure — Ukrainian sources claim it’s over one million.

STRATEGIC CRIME: Drug Cartels Are Proxy Armies, So Use the Military

Sometime after 2002, Communist China began subtly transforming organized Latin American drug trafficking syndicates. The gangs, the biggest with the hired guns, money and political connections to rate as cartels, continued their usual felony and smuggling operations but added an additional line of operation: hybrid warfare entities, shape-shifting cousins to Iranian proxy armies and classic guerrilla cadres.

The goal of this Chinese-induced transformation: waging plausibly deniable disintegrative and chemical and anarchic war against America on America’s own soil.

Chemical war? Killer drugs are chemicals.

Thank President Trump for formulating policies and implementing operations to counter disintegrative warfare.

LOOMING DEADLINE? Hiroshima’s Cloud and the Ukraine Ceasefire Deadline

Creators Syndicate had this out yesterday — the 80th anniversary of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima.

The lede:

The 80th anniversaries of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki provide an instructive moment for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to mull the costs of war and the benefits of peace — and perhaps rethink risking a head-to-head collision with nuclear-armed America and a revitalized and rearming NATO.

The nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima (Aug. 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9) didn’t end World War II — at least not quite. That’s a fact that needs to be repeated.

The six days between Nagasaki and Japan’s surrender on Aug. 15 were six more hideous days of war for U.S. and allied forces. Combat — and Japanese atrocities — continued in China, the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

During those six days, vicious political turmoil shook Tokyo, as the Japanese high command’s so-called peace and war factions battled for control of the state. The fanatics wanted to continue the war.

Later:

in 2025, nuclear weapons shadow all Ukraine-related negotiations, especially the looming economic and diplomatic collision. On July 31, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (a popinjay given to apocalyptic threats) told Trump to “watch his words” because Russia still possesses a nuclear arsenal. Trump responded with video of two U.S. Navy nuclear ballistic missile subs presumably deploying to give Medvedev and Putin reason to watch their words.

I wrote the column August 5. August 6 President Trump said Vlad the Mad now wants to talk. I think Russia is in terrible economic shape and vulnerable to an enforced economic embargo. We will see what happens.

RELATED: Russia: The Vulnerable Sick Man of Eurasia And Russia is vulnerable — to China. ALSO RELATED: A StrategyPage Logistics Update from March 2025 evaluating Russia’s Railroad Reality.

TRUMP’S UKRAINE NEGOTIATIONS CLOCK REDUCED “10 TO 12 DAYS”: Putin’s Aug. 9 Deadline: Economic Nagasaki?”

…July 28: “I’m going to make a new deadline of about 10, 10 or 12 days from today. There’s no reason in waiting. It was 50 days, I wanted to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made.” No progress by Putin. Trump later added: “… Every time I think it’s going to end he (Putin) kills people.”

Go to the calendar. From July 28, count 10 and 12 days forward. Aug. 7 to Aug. 9?

You don’t need to be a World War II historian to know this Aug. 9 is the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki. Who knows? Trump might pull the enhanced trade and sanctions trigger Aug. 6, the 80th anniversary of atomic war’s Hiroshima debut.

The bombs ended WWII.

No — I’m not predicting nuclear war. However, I think Putin will get the message. In a metaphorical sense, Trump intends to nuke the Putin regime’s economy and give its key trading partners a very tough choice: Face 100% (possibly higher) U.S. tariffs if they continue to trade or financially engage with Putin’s regime.

Don’t say Big Don doesn’t think like this — he does. So stay tuned.

DEMOCRATS GERRYMANDERED INTO A CORNER: John Hinderaker at Powerline mocks the NY Time’s “gnashing of teeth” over Republican congressional redistricting to expand the Republican seat margin in the House. Basically the Democrats have already reached maximum gerrymander in states they control. Illinois and Maryland are egregious examples (see John’s post for the numbers). Bottom line: the Dems, having squeezed what they can squeeze, resort to howling. The post is a public service. Hinderaker reads the New York Times’ gnash fest so you and I don’t have to.

OBAMA’S CRIMINAL HOAX: Intelligence Agency Lies Damaging National Security

I wrote this Tuesday night and it was on the web yesterday. Just now posting. New information released yesterday and today factually reinforce the column’s major points — which Americans with a brain already knew to be true. I tied Hillary Clinton’s criminal mishandling of classified intelligence to Obama’s Hoax, and deeply tied it is.

The lede:

Thank Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard for beginning the necessary process of refuting and punishing the Obama administration’s RussiaRussiaRussia lies that put American national security at risk.

That’s no exaggeration, and I’ll show why below.

Read the column. But here’s why Obama’s Hoax matters in the here, now and future, and why the culpable deserve decades of jail time.

Trustworthy intelligence matters to American defense, internationally and domestically. Protecting genuine secrets matters.

Here’s why trustworthy intel matters.

Clinton’s criminal abuse of classified documents was and remains a national security scandal with major implications.

Terrorists, rogue states, Russia and Communist China are deadly threats. Effective diplomacy and reliable intelligence collection and assessment are our first lines of defense against both. Effective diplomacy and reliable intel require institutionally and legally protecting secrets — i.e., classified information. Protection includes protecting reliable intelligence sources, from satellites to flesh and blood human spies.

Protecting secrets has a moral spine as well. Failure to protect classified information increases the risk of belligerent attack on America, its allies and their interests. Exposing classified information can endanger the lives of U.S. military personnel, intelligence agents and counter-intelligence officers. It certainly undermines morale at essential security agencies.

Obama’s Hoax was fiction; so is the Manchurian Candidate (an American brainwashed into serving as a Communist assassin). Perhaps Obama thought he could brainwash the American people using Trump-hating media. Can we ask him under oath?

Russia: The Vulnerable Sick Man of Eurasia

Popular history credits Russian Czar Nicholas I with describing 19th-century Ottoman Turkey as “The Sick Man of Europe.”

British envoy Sir George Hamilton’s full quote lacks the headline’s memorable pop: “We have a sick man on our hands, a man gravely ill …” The czar added that it would be dreadful if sick man Turkey slipped away “before the necessary arrangements are made.”

In 2025, hard facts say Russia is The Sick Man of Eurasia — ripe for exploitation by actors making calculating arrangements.

Yes. Arrangements are being made.

Read the entire essay.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: The Simultaneous Strategic Bombing Strike on Iran, an operation 30 years in the making.

The 509th’s raid was three decades in the making. In 1996, the U.S. experimented with deep penetration conventional bombs and timing attacks so the second bomb struck milliseconds behind the first. A second bullet in the first bullet hole, one-two punch. In September 1996, I wrote a column mentioning the tests. The potential target: Libya’s chemical weapons stash hidden under a mountain. The 509th’s MOPs delivered these one-two punches.

Add submarine-launched cruise missiles that arrive in sync with the bombs and the result: strategic “time on target”.

THE PREDICATE FOR TRUMP’S ABILITY TO DEMAND A CEASEFIRE: The U.S. Air Force 509th Bomb Wing’s jaw-dropping raid on and likely destruction of Iran’s most critical nuclear weapons facilities — located in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

MOP. Massive Ordnance Penetrator. But there are other bombs…

Later:

Trump’s ceasefire began awkwardly. After a Trump F-bomb tantrum, Israel agreed to observe the ceasefire, though it meant giving up its air supremacy. With another five days Israel could have taken out scores of regime-maintenance targets — thug forces protecting ayatollahs and assets that can threaten Persian Gulf oil tankers. Sample targets: Iranian Republican Guard Corps leaders; speedboats, stored naval mines and anti-ship missiles the regime could use to close the Strait of Hormuz.

More:

The following paragraph comes from a Creators Syndicate column I wrote analyzing a potential U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear sites. The publication date is Aug. 4, 2010, during the Obama administration: “The (U.S.) claim is destroying these (Iranian) sites would seriously disrupt the (Iranian) bomb project. A ‘simultaneous strategic bombing strike’ (SSBS) on the facilities is one U.S. attack option. In a short time frame, aircraft, cruise missiles and perhaps ballistic missiles with conventional warheads would deliver hundreds of precision weapons, hitting nuclear targets and air defense sites. Follow-up raids could continue for weeks. Special operations commandos would enter Iran, collecting intelligence, providing target data and possibly attacking very high-value targets.”

The predicate to that military scenario paragraph? From the same column: “When ‘Meet the Press’ (earlier in the week) asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Admiral) Mike Mullen if the Pentagon had a plan for attacking Iran, Mullen replied, ‘We do.’ He added, ‘Military actions have been on the table and remain on the table …’ Mullen tempered his response by emphasizing an attack is always an ‘option.’ Mullen kept his hypothetical saber stroke in a diplomatic sheath by emphasizing the U.S. regards military action to destroy Iranian nuclear capabilities as an “option.””

And hysteric House Democrats want to impeach Trump for superbly executing an option Obama administration officials publicly acknowledged? We witness the dregs of war.

The dregs of war…Tell AOC I wrote that. Dreg, not dog.

Read the whole thing. Creators title sums it: Simultaneous Strategic Bombing Strike, 12 Day War and Mid-East Peace?

ANOTHER THOUGHT: Let US Bombs Destroy Iran’s Fordow Uranium Plant — Not Israeli Nukes.

I wrote this column Tuesday night. It’s drawn some heated but interesting reactions. Here’s the lede:

The Israel-Iran War Over Nuclear Weapons could end with a nuclear blast. Why have a reluctant Washington send two American B-2 stealth bombers each dropping a 30,000-pound (15-ton) Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) conventional bomb destroy Iran’s buried Fordow uranium enrichment facility?

Israel has nuclear weapons, everyone knows that. One well-placed Israeli nuke — say, 5 kilotons? — could penetrate and shatter Fordow, and, with a seismic shudder and internal structural collapse, end the ayatollah dictatorship’s 35-year pursuit of nuclear munitions.

Is this a plausible scenario?

A plausible military scenario requires the technical capability to execute the central mission. Israel has the nuclear capability and the delivery systems (likely aircraft). The U.S. has the conventional weapon capability and delivery system (B-2). Israel has also achieved air superiority over Iran — combat aircraft can fly almost anywhere.

War, however, is politics using violence. That’s what Carl von Clausewitz thought. The usual interpretation: Political goals should direct and restrain violent capabilities.

Oh, but those human beings who just know they are on a glorious mission of conquest, and maybe God or the gods or history or Karl Marx is on their side!

Ayatollah Iran exemplifies this Divine Conqueror delusion. Iran calls little Israel a “one bomb state.” The Tehran quip states a goal, one with violent direction. If Iran had a nuclear weapon, the Islamic revolutionary regime’s destructive record of war, terror and crimes against humanity tells sane humans an unrestrained megalomaniacal ayatollah would target Tel Aviv for nuclear immolation.

Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons — not yet. If they had one, it would have been used in the last five days.

However, as long as Fordow exists, the ayatollahs can continue to enrich uranium to weapons-grade, and, when this fracas ends, begin a new nuclear weapons quest.

A little later:

The fact Israel hasn’t nuked Fordow is a definitive statement about Israeli national values, current intentions and positive future goals. Put simply, Israel stands with Earth’s constructive nations. Enrich your wallets, not your nuclear weapons. Let’s make a deal.

Hope you’ll read the wholte thing.

New Model Trojan Horse – Ukraine’s Drones:

Bravo to Ukraine for its “New Model Trojan Horse.”

Homer’s Greek warriors slipped from a wooden horse to open Troy’s gates and start the bloodbath that ended a 10-year war.

Ukraine cleverly and stealthily shipped wooden crates deep inside Russian territory, 1,500 kilometers into Siberia. The truck-borne crates were finally positioned a short suicide drone flight from scores of Russian bombers parked on airbases –airbases no doubt protected from long-range aircraft and missile attacks, but unprepared for a “close in” drone attack.

MORE:

The tech was vital, but it wasn’t the decisive factor — like Israel’s Grim Beeper operation, stealth made Ukraine’s drone victory possible.

Could U.S. strategic bomber bases suffer a similar attack? Of course.
From a column I wrote in late December 2024 (and quoted in this June 3 column:

Here’s the gist of the December 2024 column’s scenario:

“I’m by Dyess Air Force Base, Abilene, Texas. You’re outside Ellsworth AFB, Rapid City, South Dakota. The drones pass right over us. They’re both the size of a two-seat Cessna and they carry bombs with small, smart, cheap and individually targetable munitions. In the next 45 seconds, the drones fly over the airbases. Their munitions disable a half-dozen B1B Lancer strategic bombers — six at each airbase.”

As a footnote, a link to the December 2024 column: The Next Pearl Harbor: Close-In Drone Swarm Attacks Launched From US Soil?

UPDATE: The run-on words (Greekwarriors, etc) are being corrected by the StrategyPage webmaster.

WHAT DOES PUTIN VALUE?: Dealing Don and Bad Vlad Head for a Showdown

Understanding value in a straight-up deal creates cooperation or a walk-off no deal.

War is not a straight-up deal.

Check it out.

RELATED: Commerce over chaos!

Loose Lips Sink Ships? Naw, Loose App Links to Security Lapse: Consequential Mistake?

The news hook title isn’t as crisp as World War II’s “Loose Lips Sink Ships.” It does send the relevant 21st-century message that digital communication systems have security flaws enemies can exploit to gather critical information.

WWII’s brilliant rhyme warned that loose talk in a New York bar could tell Nazi spies where to position U-boats to intercept convoys. My update repeats warnings everyone using a cellphone or email should already know: someone or some device can be monitoring your communications.

A little more:

On March 25, CIA Director John Ratcliffe told the Senate Intelligence Committee that when he became director, he was given a phone with Signal pre-loaded. He was briefed that Signal was “permissible” for work use, and “That is a practice that preceded the current administration to the Biden administration.”

Did the Biden administration discuss sensitive national security information on the phones? Who knows. I doubt Communist Chinese intelligence will tell us.

Did the Biden administration provide the Trump administration with Signal apps that included Goldberg’s contact information? A fair question to ask for those demanding a thorough investigation.

Matt Margolis of PJMedia writes, “This has all the hallmarks of a deliberate setup.”

I suspect an inadvertent mistake, but Margolis has a point given the corruption we’ve witnessed in the CIA and FBI. Russia Russia Russia was a hoax.

A bit more:

Signalgate is/was a mistake. A destructive mistake? No. It may simply be an accidental leak to media. But it must be thoroughly investigated, and that includes public testimony from Mr. Goldberg — under oath so he risks perjury charges.

Suggest you peruse the entire essay.

BREAKING: Ukraine War: The Peace Ball Is Now in Putin’s Court:

Late on March 11, the Trump administration announced Ukraine had agreed to a 30-day ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine War.
A joint American-Ukrainian statement said the U.S. will “immediately” resume full intelligence sharing and military-security aid to Ukraine. The Trump administration also said Ukraine had agreed to the strategic minerals deal President Donald Trump offered as payment for U.S. financial and material support.

Trump makes the case that the deal serves as an informal security guarantee for Ukraine — meaning the minerals-for-support deal tells Moscow the U.S. has a strategic interest in peace, in Ukraine’s political existence, in Ukraine’s economic viability and in its independence from Moscow’s destructive absorption and totalitarian corruption.

The deep logic behind Trump’s deal is based on historical common sense that even a megalomaniac like Russian dictator Vladimir Putin should grasp: Peace empowers genuine economic viability and sustainability.

Why? War kills workers and consumers (human beings), destroys railroads and sinks ships (disrupts economic supply chains) and, in the case of U.S. access to Ukrainian strategic minerals in which it now has an international agreement ownership interest, presents Putin with the threat of U.S. economic sanctions and — the clincher — possible armed conflict with the U.S. if he continues to wage war.

Suggest you read the entire column.

…

America’s Self-Inflicted Strategic Threat

Dig.

The political hacks opposing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are laughable — until you realize these hysterics present a serious threat to U.S. national security.

President Dwight Eisenhower’s no longer with us, but we have his National Security Council 162/2 report, dated Oct. 30, 1953. Once top secret, it’s now on the internet.

Ike’s West Point gut told him America faced a long and dreary strategic siege, and to pay for the win, we needed wealth — meaning a long-term productive and growing economy.

MORE:

2022’s hyperinflation and government budget excess exacerbated Washington’s debt problem. Now inflation is embedded in all U.S. economic action, to include military preparedness. Did Joe Biden do it? Yes.

But he did it in league with a criminal enemy: America’s embedded bureaucratic state, an unelected and predominantly Democratic Party caste addicted to self-serving, reckless spending and — until the Trump administration’s DOGE — immune to audit.

Bottom Line: “The unelected bureaucratic state has lost track of five defense budgets.”

RTWDT. Read the whole damn thing.

SHAPING OUR CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL HELLSCAPE: The Biden-Harris Afghanistan Bugout 3 Years On

August 2024 marks the third anniversary of the Biden-Harris administration’s most consequential international policy action: the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal.

Why Biden-Harris? Vice President Kamala Harris has said on several occasions she was “in the room” — meaning in the decision loop — when Joe Biden ordered a withdrawal based on the calendar and not on battlefield conditions. “Completely out by 9/11” is a sound bite, a political bumper sticker. It isn’t clear-headed senior leader strategic guidance for a military withdrawal from a complex war zone.

Read the entire essay.

SPEAKING OF NATIONAL DEFENSE: Let’s Kick-start US Naval and Commercial Shipbuilding

U.S. MILITARY IN DECLINE: America’s Airpower Is at Risk

In July 2014, I wrote a column that included this troubling paragraph: “With a few teeth-clenching exceptions (the Korean War’s MiG Alley battles), since 1944, American land, sea and air forces have enjoyed the military and diplomatic benefits of U.S. air superiority. Unfortunately, in 2014 there are strong indications that America’s air advantage is diminishing.”

On July 29, 2024 (10 years later), Air & Space Forces Magazine online interviewed U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. Slife. This Ukraine war-informed quote struck home: “We used to make the claim that since 1953 no American has been killed by air attack. We can’t make that claim anymore,” Slife said. “It calls into question, ‘What does air superiority actually look like?’ [Does] it look like 30,000 feet over the Yalu River (Korea) in 1953 or does it look like below 3,000 feet with quadcopters with a hand grenade slung to the bottom of them? I think the answer is: It’s all of the above.”

Check it out.

FROM LAST WEEK: Biden’s ‘Different Picture’ Ploy Put Freedom at Risk Did it ever. The direct quote from Joe that describes the entire Biden Administration: “And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”

HOMELAND DEFENSE FOULUP: Secret Service Misses the Assassin in Plain Sight

“See something, say something.” After the 9/11 disaster, that phrase served as a terse marching order for alert American citizens willing to help stop terror attacks on U.S. soil.

“See something, say something” is superb national security advice. 9/11 demonstrated America is under attack. Every citizen can contribute to the defense effort.

On Saturday, July 13, several alert citizens attending a presidential campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, saw a young man lurking near a building adjacent to the fairground where presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump intended to deliver a speech. The young man was later seen on the building’s roof.

Local and Global Security Point 1: Per 9/11, concerned citizens on the ground provided The See. Several informed law enforcement officers. Hence Point 2: Citizens provided The Say.

Bottom Line: “Mayorkas and Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle failed to execute fundamental duties. They should resign immediately.”

But read the entire commentary.

SO NOW THE HATERS TRY TO KILL PRESIDENT TRUMP: Remember June 2017? A Bernie Bro launched a terror attack, trying to kill congressional Republicans en masse. James T. Hodgkinson. Don’t hear much about him. We should. I wrote this for The Spectator: The Left-Wing Terrorist’s Capitol Hill Coup d’Etat

UPDATE: I just saw Glenn’s recollection. James T. Hodgkinson won’t be erased.

STRAIGHT, NO CHASER: A Trump NATO? The 3% Solution

If you want peace, prepare for war. The maxim is attributed to Scipio Africanus, the Roman general who defeated Hannibal — but Plato mulled the idea.

If they want peace, for the next 10 years NATO nations and their Pacific allies must spend 3% of GDP on defense. Current U.S. defense spending? About 3%.

I wrote this essay Tuesday. As for Biden’s press conference this evening, he lied about his strong support for Ukraine. Recall Biden thought Russia would blitz Ukraine and he wanted Zelenskyy to flee. Zelenskyy replied to the effect, “I need ammunition, ‘not a ride.” Will the mainstream media call him on his lie?